United States Exploring Expedition. 395 



and the Cape Verds. From Rio, on the 6th of January follow- 

 ing, they proceeded to Rio Negro, on the northern confines 

 of Patagonia, and thence to Nassau Bay in Tierra del Fuego, 

 just west of Cape Horn. From this place, the Peacock, Porpoise, 

 and the two schooners, made cruises in different directions to- 

 wards the pole ; but the season was too far advanced for much 

 success, as it was already February 24th before they sailed. 

 The schooner Flying Fish, notwithstanding, reached latitude 

 70° 14' S., nearly the highest attained by Cook, and not far 

 from the same longitude. The ship Relief was ordered to enter 

 a southern channel opening into the straits of Magellan, but met 

 with constant gales, and barely escaped being wrecked, after a loss 

 of four anchors, at an anchorage she had made under Noir Island, 

 to escape the rocks of a lee coast. The Vincennes remained at 

 Nassau Bay to carry on surveys and magnetic observations. In 

 May of 1839, the vessels were again together at Valparaiso, with 

 the exception of one schooner, the Sea Gull, which was lost in a 

 gale shortly after leaving Nassau Bay. The vessels sailed on 

 the 6th of June for Callao, Peru, and from here, the Relief, hav 

 ing proved ill-adapted for such a voyage, was dispatched home. 

 On the 12th of July, the squadron left the South American coast 

 and sailed west, visiting and surveying fourteen or fifteen of the 

 Paumotu Islands, two of the Society Islands, and all the Naviga- 

 tor group, and on the 28th of November reached Sydney, New 

 South Wales. .; jg 



The vessels next proceeded on their second Antarctic cruise. 

 Land was first discovered in longitude 160° E., and latitude 66° 

 30' S. The Vincennes and Porpoise pursued the barrier of ice 

 to the westward as far as 97° E. longitude, seeing the land at in- 

 tervals for one thousand five hundred miles. When the barrier 

 of ice permitted, the Vincennes sailed along " within from three 

 fourths of a mile to ten miles of the land." In a place they call- 

 ed Piner's bay, soundings were obtained in thirty fathoms, and 

 they had hopes of soon landing on the rocks ; but a storm came 

 up suddenly which lasted for thirty-six hours, and drove the ves- 

 sel far to leeward ; they consequently pushed on with their ex- 

 plorations to the westward, hoping for some more accessible place, 

 but were disappointed.* Large masses of rock were collected 



* See the synopsis of the cruise by Capt. Wilkes. 



I 



